Western General Store

I was cutting out these shelf brackets from mahogany and noticed a pretty left-over design. Well, I must make something out of that! An idea came to me to make a Decorative Cross piece. The dimensions of this piece are 5" wide x 14" tall. I knew mahogany had a dark rich tone when sealed with a clear sealer. For contrast I squiggled some acrylic turquoise lines to look like turquoise inlay. Since this is the back, I could practice my technique. A Key hole was installed on the back for easy hanging. I put a finish on a Leather Cross , then glued on a metal Cross with regular Gorilla Glue. I've never used this glue before, and it worked great! I sawed off the little loop hanger at the top of the metal cross and filed any sharp edges. I wanted to sand some of the sealer so I could glue on the leather cross. I traced the cross onto contact paper, cut it out and taped it onto the wood. After sanding, I glued the leather cross onto the wood using...

This window picture frame, which I bought at a craft store many years ago, was behind my stove in the old kitchen, but I thought I'd repurpose it. I'm sure you can still find these type of frames, or you could make your own. Another idea is to find antique windows from old houses. Print out your favorite picture or have it printed by a print service. This photo is of my two mares who were sisters. November is about the family getting together and celebrating what we are thankful for. You could print out several family photos and place one in each pane. I found a board that was already finished and was the perfect size for the shelf. It is 31" x 3 1/2" x 3/4". The window Frame is 30 1/2" x 23" tall. I drew and cut out these shelf braces on the scroll saw and gave them the same finish as the shelf, which is dark brown Briwax. I thought about painting the whole thing one color and distressing it to look old, but I like the contrast....

My initial thought was to make a pallet wood tray with rope handles. That idea evolved into first a box, then a box with a lid. I showed some sketches to my husband and he built a prototype out of rough mahogany without me even knowing about it. How sweet! I was really excited then, but I wanted to make it from weathered pallet boards, so we got to work. We cut the boards as we were fitting it together like a puzzle. One of the end pieces is shorter to allow for the lid to close. We drilled 3/16" holes 1/4" deep in the sides of the lid for 1/2" long wooden dowels 5/8" from the end of the lid. We drilled 3/16" holes 1/4" deep on each side piece 1 1/4" from the end if using 1/2" thick boards. We glued the pieces together with wood glue and used a brad gun to secure it. On the fresh cut ends like the end of the lid shown in this picture I applied a mixture of a little black, grey and brown acrylic paint and wiped...

We came up with this lamp design to go with our décor. I found the terracotta sconce at a local rustic décor store and the shade at Lowes. We made the wooden pieces and applied a clear finish. We rigged up a night light bulb inside the sconce and used a three way light kit. When you turn the switch once the bottom bulb lights up, turn it twice the top bulb lights up, and turn it once more and both bulbs light up. We have really enjoyed these lamps over the years.

If you are a wood worker or know someone who builds cabinets, this might be the project for you. The photo is pre plasma TV. Now our 48 inch Panasonic fits and nicely and would easily support a larger one. We designed and built this cabinet for our needs, but it could be customized. Sliding wood trays hold tons of DVDs and Tapes. In the center section sliding wood shelves hold DVD player/recorder and sound system. The rear of this section is open for plugging in the wires. When the doors are closed it's a nice neat cabinet.

This project took quite a while from planning to finish. I placed the cast iron items and rope from the craft store on a board in different ways until I was satisfied. I took several pictures and played with the colors for the wood in Photoshop. I knew I wanted to crackle the paint so I did it in sections, then glued the rope on and frayed the ends. I tied and glued on leather cord to keep it from unraveling. I spray painted the cast iron metallic silver and drilled holes to mount them. The longhorns could hold jewelry, caps, hats, belts, or coats. Items for the project from Western General Store Longhorn Skull Drawer Pulls Large Horseshoes Star Nails